Fire Burman

[OrediggerPoke]

In the era of NIL, Naming rights to the Stadium should be up for grabs. If we want big oil Money, stadium naming rights has to be on the table. This is very Short sighted by the AD, I am all in on needing a new AD and FB coach at Wyoming.

It's crazy to take the University's most valuable marketing asset off the table.

I have to wonder what a company looking to build potentially the State's largest ever energy project, a project facing potential community headwinds, may be willing to pay for such rights.

Crusoe and Tallgrass announce AI data center in Wyoming

www.crusoe.ai

 

[307bball]

It's crazy to take the University's most valuable marketing asset off the table.

I have to wonder what a company looking to build potentially the State's largest ever energy project, a project facing potential community headwinds, may be willing to pay for such rights.

Crusoe and Tallgrass announce AI data center in Wyoming

www.crusoe.ai

I took a load of crap for having the opinion that selling naming rights wasn't in the top 50 problems with Wyoming athletics.

That being said (and I still believe it to be true), it is most likely the case that if a lot of the other systemic issues were fixed the naming rights would be sold.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

I took a load of crap for having the opinion that selling naming rights wasn't in the top 50 problems with Wyoming athletics.

That being said (and I still believe it to be true), it is most likely the case that if a lot of the other systemic issues were fixed the naming rights would be sold.

I’m not fully tracking.

Burman apparently just definitively stated that he won’t sell the naming rights under any scenario. Now if you’re saying that Burman himself is a systemic issue, then maybe I’m following.

 

[307bball]

I’m not fully tracking.

Burman apparently just definitively stated that he won’t sell the naming rights under any scenario. Now if you’re saying that Burman himself is a systemic issue, then maybe I’m following.

Sorry you’re right, that wasn’t very clear.

What I’m saying is that I view the naming-rights issue as peripheral compared to the structural problems facing UW athletics. If the department were consistently competitive, financially nimble, and aligned with the current reality of college sports, I’d probably care a lot more about whether the stadium name stayed untouched. Right now, arguing and complainign about things like stadium naming, AD compensation or AA re-seating feels like focusing on symptoms instead of the operating model itself.

The deeper issue, in my view, is that early in Burman’s tenure UW chose a strategy that only really made sense in a world where conference alignment was stable and the amateur model of college athletics remained firmly intact. In fairness to that choice, it wasn't completely crazy at the time. Once NIL, realignment, and the professionalization of the sport accelerated, that strategy became increasingly misaligned with reality. Some of that disruption couldn’t have been predicted. But over time it became clear the landscape was shifting and UW didn’t adjust course. That’s what I mean by systemic.

Whether Burman personally is the issue is almost secondary at this point. Firing him would amount to acknowledging that the broader strategic direction has been flawed for some time. Institutions aren’t quick to make that kind of admission even when it's painfully obvious to everybody else.

So to bring it back to naming rights, I don’t think selling them fixes much. And refusing to sell them doesn’t meaningfully preserve much either. It’s not nothing. It’s just not central.